Getting Dialogue Right: How to Punctuate Dialogue and Use Dialogue Tags

Just exactly what is dialogue? 

You are writing this blog post. Why don’t you tell me?

I beg your pardon?

Why, what did you do?

Who are you?―if you don’t mind my asking.

Well, I’m a would-be writer who is hanging around waiting for you to say something interesting.

What is your name?

I am Affan. Can I ask you a question?

Sure. Go ahead.

Okay―what’s dialogue?

Dialogue is a conversation between two or more people.

Like what we’re having right now?

Exactly.

When we have a conversation or dialogue with other people in person we know who is talking but when we write we have to tell which character is talking. We need punctuation marks to surround what is being said. For example, your character Sarah might ask, “It's snowing here, what's it doing there?”

Oh no! I don't know anything about punctuating dialogue!

Fear not!!! Punctuating dialogue isn't difficult if you follow the rules... A dialogue between characters without rules is confusing. Take a look at the huge paragraph below where we have different characters talking back and forth but we're not following any punctuation or paragraphing rules which are creating the confusion. We need to find a way to organize this paragraph so that it's easy for us to see which character is speaking at which point of time right.  

It is extraordinary to me, Dorian, said Hallward, that you should have seen this in the portrait. Did you really see it? I saw something in it, he answered, something that seemed to me very curious. Well, you don't mind my looking at the thing now? Dorian shook his head. You must not ask me that, Basil. I could not possibly let you stand in front of that picture. You will some day, surely? Never. Well, perhaps you are right. And now good-bye, Dorian. You have been the one person in my life who has really influenced my art. Whatever I have done that is good, I owe to you. Ah! you don't know what it cost me to tell you all that I have told you. My dear Basil, said Dorian, what have you told me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment. It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words.

If you punctuate and format your dialogue properly, it is much easier for the reader to understand. 

"It is extraordinary to me, Dorian," said Hallward, "that you should have seen this in the portrait. Did you really see it?" 

"I saw something in it," he answered, "something that seemed to me very curious." 

"Well, you don't mind my looking at the thing now?" 

Dorian shook his head. "You must not ask me that, Basil. I could not possibly let you stand in front of that picture." 

"You will some day, surely?" 

"Never."  
                                                                                           

"Well, perhaps you are right. And now good-bye, Dorian. You have been the one person in my life who has really influenced my art. Whatever I have done that is good, I owe to you. Ah! you don't know what it cost me to tell you all that I have told you."   

"My dear Basil," said Dorian, "what have you told me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment." 

"It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words." 

But I don’t know what quotation marks are and where to put them? 

Some scholars believe that the quotation marks began in ancient Greek texts as two curved lines representing a person's lips. 

One curved line was placed at the beginning, as if the writer was saying, “I'm telling you something someone else said.” The other curved line came at the end, to say, “I'm finished writing the words that came out of the other person's mouth.” 

I don't know if this story is really true, but it should be. Two curved lines representing lips make sense since quotation marks should be placed before the first word of a quote the last word.  

Okay. You have convinced me that punctuation rules are important. But I still need to learn what the rules are! I need help! 

Here are 5 rules for punctuating dialogues.   

1. Start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes. 

The basics for the format of dialogue is that each time a new person speaks, it’s a new paragraph, like in this example from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wild. 

"It is extraordinary to me, Dorian," said Hallward, "that you should have seen this in the portrait. Did you really see it?" 

"I saw something in it," he answered, "something that seemed to me very curious." 

"Well, you don't mind my looking at the thing now?" 

Dorian shook his head. "You must not ask me that, Basil. I could not possibly let you stand in front of that picture." 

"You will some day, surely?" 

"Never."                   
                                                                                  

"Well, perhaps you are right. And now good-bye, Dorian. You have been the one person in my life who has really influenced my art. Whatever I have done that is good, I owe to you. Ah! you don't know what it cost me to tell you all that I have told you." 

"My dear Basil," said Dorian, "what have you told me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment." 

"It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words." 

2. Use quotation marks in DIRECT quotations.  

Example: 

"My dear Basil," said Dorian, "what have you told me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment." 

3. Periods, question marks, and exclamation points should go inside ending quotation marks. 

Example: 

"I am in Lady Agatha's black books at present," answered Dorian with a funny look of penitence. "I promised to go to a club in Whitechapel with her last Tuesday, and I really forgot all about it.” 

"My dear Basil," said Dorian, "what have you told me?”  

“Did you see Hagrid sobbing, “I’m so sorry!” 

4. Use commas to start and end dialogue tags or expressions. 

Example: 

"I know you will laugh at me," he replied, "but I really can't exhibit it. I have put too much of myself into it."  

5. After you finish, read over your dialogue to make sure that conversation makes sense. Since people don't always speak in complete sentences, dialogue often contains sentence fragments that aren't grammatically incorrect. Still, it is important that your readers correctly understand the message intended by your speakers.  

Okay, thanks! You have explained to me about punctuation rules but what are dialogue tags? 

A dialogue tag is a text that goes after a character has spoken, such as "he said," and "she whispered. So, in this sentence: "And what is that?" he asked, ‘he asked’ is the dialogue tag. 

Dialogue tags are very important as they tell the readers who is talking, how they speak, and any other actions they took in the middle of a dialogue. They either come before, after or in between the actual dialogue. We ask our poor reader to do a lot of work. She has to keep in mind many different pieces of information, and the tags help her keep track of who's speaking.  

Here are 3 ways to tag dialogue.  

TAG BEFORE THE DIALOGUE 

When dialogue tags are before the dialogue it looks like this: 

Marty asked, “I need help moving this box of toys for the garage sale. Will you help me?”  

How it works:

• Use a comma AFTER the dialogue tag.
• If the dialogue is the beginning of a sentence, CAPITALIZE the first letter.
• End the dialogue with the appropriate punctuation and keep it INSIDE the quotation marks.

TAG AFTER THE DIALOGUE 

When dialogue tags are used after the dialogue it looks like this: 

"He is very good-looking," she said. 

How it works:

• Punctuation still goes INSIDE quotation marks.
• Unless the dialogue tag begins with a proper noun, it is NOT capitalized.
• End the dialogue tag with APPROPRIATE PUNCTUATION.

TAG IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DIALOGUE 

When dialogue tags are used in the middle of dialogue it looks like this: 

"First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-"  

How it works:

• A comma is used before the dialogue tag and goes INSIDE quotation marks.
• Unless the dialogue tag begins with a proper noun, it is NOT capitalized.
• A comma is used after the dialogue tag, OUTSIDE of quotation marks, to reintroduce the dialogue.
• End the dialogue with the appropriate punctuation and keep it INSIDE the quotation marks.

Some more tips...!!

• Make your dialogue easy for your readers to understand and read.
• If you are writing with multiple (three or more) characters, use only enough dialogue tags to clearly indicate who is speaking.
• If you are trying to insert action or description, you can use it as the dialogue tag. For example:

Lord Henry laughed. "And what is that?" he asked.  

"I will tell you," said Hallward; but an expression of perplexity came over his face.  

"I am all expectation, Basil," continued his companion, glancing at him.  

Hey, thanks! Now I understand the rules and can't wait to start writing dialogue—correctly! 

7 Grammar Errors in English!

Sometimes your English could be 90% correct but there are still some small errors we want to correct them for effective communication. Today you’ll have a chance to review seven common English grammar mistakes with examples from real clients of mine. So, let’s start!  

I wore a jeans.

I wore jeans.

Or

I wore a pair of jeans.

The nouns jeans pants, shorts, scissors, and glasses are special. Although each word refers to one singular item, however, we can’t use an article. 

For example: 

She’s wearing glasses.

I bought a pair of shorts at the mall.

There’s a pair of scissors on my desk.

If you want to refer to more than one item, use 2 3 4, etc. 

For example:

I have 2 pairs of white pants. 

He loves team sports as soccer.

He loves team sports such as soccer. 

Or 

He loves team sports like soccer.

When you want to give an example use SUCH AS or LIKE. Don’t use only AS to introduce an example. Such as is considered more formal than like.

I didn’t save money enough. 

I didn’t save enough money. 

The word ENOUGH comes before a noun and after the adjective. 

For example:

We have enough food.

Food is a noun so ENOUGH comes before it. It’s the same with the word MONEY. Money is also a noun so we use enough before the noun. It’s the opposite of adjectives.

For example:

You’re not tall enough to go on the ride.

Tall is an adjective so we use the word enough after the adjective tall.

I worked a lot in last month.

We’ll meet on next Monday.

I worked a lot last month.

We’ll meet next Monday.

We normally use IN with months and ON with days, however, when you use the words LAST and NEXT you don’t need IN or ON. You can simply say last month and next Monday without an extra preposition.

It was so long time ago.

It was so long ago. 

Or 

It was such a long time ago. 

Use SO plus an adjective or an adverb and use SUCH plus an adjective plus a noun. 

Here are some examples of how to use the word SO plus an adjective or an adverb. You can say:

She’s so friendly. 

Friendly is an adjective. 

This sandwich is so good. 

Good is another adjective. 

He works so hard. 

Hard is an adverb.

However, if the adjective is followed by a noun then we need to use SUCH instead of SO. Here are some examples of such a plus an adjective plus a noun. You can say:

She’s such a friendly person. 

In this case, we have the noun person at the end so we need to use SUCH A instead of SO. 

Such a good sandwich.

 And 

He has such a demanding job. 

One exception is when the noun is plural in this case use only SUCH not A. 
For example: 

They are such friendly people. 

The word people is plural so we use only SUCH, not SUCH A. 

I lent to him some money.

I lent him some money.

Or

I lent some money to him.

This rule applies to lend, give, and other verbs that have both a direct object and an indirect object. You can use one of two structures. You can have the verb plus the indirect object plus the direct object. That would be I lent him some money or if you want to put the direct object first then you would say verb direct object plus indirect object. For example, I lent some money to him or he gave the keys to Ran.   

You stopped me make a mistake. 

You stopped me from making a mistake.

The word STOP is followed by someone or something and then the word FROM and finally the verb in the ING form. Here are some more examples:

The vaccine stops people from catching the disease. 

The waterproof covering prevents the equipment from getting wet.

If you want to make sure that your written English is completely correct, then contact me here.